Refuge du Truc - Mont Blanc hiking tour

Mont Blanc hiking tour 2024 – Southern Half

Concise details on the Mont Blanc hiking tour – Southern Half can be obtained by downloading the tour pdf [right]. Alternatively, read the tour description below and click through the sub-headings in the right-hand column for information on getting to Chamonix (the starting point), accommodation, prices and what’s included.

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M

ont Blanc hiking tour 2023 – Southern Half is the second half of our TMB extravaganza. Equipped with our unique walking notes, you set off from Chamonix [where you left off last year?] and continue your anti-clockwise tour around the Mont Blanc Massif route, closing the spiritual circle at Courmayeur, Italy, five days later.

Mont Blanc hiking tour 2024 – Southern Half helps you realise that rite of passage that you felt you just had to achieve, irrespective of your age, before you move onto the next goal on life’s wish-list.

Can I do it? Yes, you can! The Mont Blanc hiking tour attracts all sorts of people and some have never been on a walking holiday in their lives. Such is the trail’s magnetic attraction, some punters simply loose their common sense. You, of course, do not fit that mold.

However, should I do it after walking The Enlightened Traveller’s northern TMB mini-Tour? Yes, we believe you should – unless, of course, you plan to walk the whole tour with us in one go. Why? Firstly, the Mont Blanc hiking tour is more difficult – ‘challenging’ as opposed to ‘quite challenging’.

Secondly, the Mont Blanc hiking tour 2024 – Southern Half takes you into more remote and rugged areas, with the attendant dynamics. In fact, we recommend you read these tour details in conjunction with those contained in our [Courmayeur to Chamonix] TMB mini-tour.

No healthy and relatively-fit person should feel that the Mont Blanc hiking tour 2024 is beyond them – it most certainly isn’t.

So long as your detailed arrangements are made by experts, and you’re not having to worry about where to eat and sleep, nor navigational issues, the day’s walking becomes sheer enjoyment – including the ascents and descents, which you have plenty of time to negotiate at your own pace.”

- Margot Shona of The Enlightened Traveller

Mont Blanc hiking tour - Haute Savoie map

  • 6-night price:

    £1075.00 Pounds Sterling or €1295.00 Euros
    [per person, based on sharing a double- or twin-bedded room]
What’s Included:

  • 6 nights in comfortable accommodation: Four 3-star hotels, one auberge and one mountain refuge – private rooms throughout.
  • 6 breakfasts and 4 evening meals – leaving you free to choose where to purchase lunch en route as well as dinner in Chamonix and Courmayeur, where options abound.
  • Luggage transfers throughout¹.
  • Hiking Insight Notes™ that empower & make orientation easy
  • 1:25,000 scale maps & themed vacation dossier.
  • Emergency telephone help-line service, 7/7 and 8 till 8 with native-English speaking backup.

Notes:
¹ one case up to 15 kgs max. weight.

    • Challenging, 6-night, TMB mini-tour.
    • Enjoy three days in France and two in Italy.
    • Stay in the best accommodation available and experience a night in a private room in refuge Elisabetta.
    • Start in vibrant Chamonix and finish in idyllic Courmayeur.
    • Walk the Balcon du Sud and the remoter southern section.
    • Bad weather transfers – conditions apply.*
    • We transfer your luggage from hotel to hotel.

* Please ask us for details.

    • Self-guided, 6-night, challenging trip, round the bottom half of the Mont Blanc route.
    • Luggage transfers from start to finish – one case up to 15 kgs per person.
    • Start any day from 25th June to 9 September.
    • Walk the classic route anti-clockwise for an enhanced experience
    • Average 6 to 6½ hours and 10½ miles/17 kms a day.
    • Tour starts in Chamonix [France ]and finishes in sumptuous Courmayeur, Italy [just 40 mins from Chamonix, France via the Mont Blanc tunnel].
    • Convenient access from France, Italy or Switzerland.
    • Carefully-selected accommodation of a high standard, with private rooms [no ‘dortoirs’/dormitories] throughout and en suite facilities the norm – except for one auberge and the one refuge in which you stay.
  • 6 nights in comfortable accommodation: four 3-star hotels, one auberge and one mountain refuge.
  • 6 breakfasts and 4 evening meals – leaving you free to choose where to purchase lunch en route as well as dinner in Chamonix and Courmayeur, where options abound.
  • Luggage transfers throughout¹.
  • Hiking Insight Notes™ that empower & make orientation easy
  • 1:25,000 scale maps & themed vacation dossier.
  • Emergency telephone help-line service with native-English speaking backup.

Notes:
¹ one case up to 15 kgs max. weight.

    Due to the popularity of Chamonix, the options for getting to the resort are plentiful. You spend your first night in Les Praz de Chamonix, one stop [5 minutes] on the train from Chamonix, so that you wake up right next to the cable car for the start of your hiking the next day. Spend your arrival day in Chamonix and sleep with the peace of mind that you are exactly where you want to be on the morning of Day Two.

    For comprehensive details on how to get to Chamonix, please see:
    Chamonix.com
    or
    Rome to Rio

  • By Road – frequent ‘SAT’ coaches take you from Geneva Airport or Northern Italy to Chamonix;
    Road access is also possible via the Grand St. Bernard way above Martigny in Switzerland. The ValD’Aosta tunnel makes it very easy to reach the town from Aosta, Turin or Milan;
    Courmayeur can also be reached by bus via daily services from the main cities of northern Italy Turin, Milan, Genoa.
  • By Train – The Mont Blanc Express: This SNCF railway line serves all villages from St Gervais-le Fayet to Martigny (Switzerland) via Servoz, Les Houches, Chamonix, Chamonix Les Praz, Argentière and Vallorcine.
  • See also the new train connection by the Léman Express between Geneva Airport and the Saint Gervais Le Fayet train station, with onward train travel to Chamonix.

  • By Air – Getting to Chamonix is relatively straightforward from the following major airports:
    1. Geneva International Airport, with onward connections by train [hourly via Martigny] or bus [via the SAT bus company] or via airport transfer.
    2. Lyon International Airport, with onward connections by train [via Annecy].
    3. Charles de Gaulle with onward connections by train.
  • Family-run accommodation, carefully selected on the basis of superior facilities, location, service and welcome;
  • Private rooms throughout – no ‘dortoirs’/dormitories.
  • We bring you:
    • Praz de Chamonix- 3-star hotel
    • Les Houches, 3-star hotel;
    • Les Contamines, 3-star hotel;
    • Chapieux, one-star walkers’ inn;
    • Val Veni, Refuge Elisabetta [private room without WC & bathroom] and
    • Courmayeur, 3-star hotel.
  • Warm, but short summers;
  • Alpine flora and fauna – ibex, bouquetins, marmots;
  • Classic alpine topography: jagged, ice-covered peaks and flat, glaciated valleys;
  • A fine and varied mix of undulating trail through alpine pasture and along broad ridge. Morning climbs and late-afternoon descents are the norm.

Mont Blanc hiking tour - TMB Part 2 map

We have dissected this half of Le Tour into the most practicable stages possible. Once again, our aim is to get away from ‘Les Crowds’ by not starting in Les Houches. Moreover, we cut out the avoidable pain of the monotonous climb on tarmac and ski slope that characterizes the Les Houches to Col de Voza section [first thing on Day] and, instead, replace it with the ‘telecabine’ to Bellevue.

Mont Blanc hiking tour 2024 also allows you the luxury of delaying the choice, until you are ‘up there,’ between the all-weather Lower Route, or the fine weather Higher Route via Miage to Les Contamines. These two routes are so extremely diverse and interesting that we just couldn’t choose between them – so decided to include them both instead! Just select according to your preference or the weather forecast.

The Les-Contamines-to-Les-Chapieux section is exhilarating, if long and challenging – the variants being uninviting and NOT all weather.

Mont Blanc hiking tour – Southern Half sees you enjoy an overnight stay in the Elisabetta refuge which, for most, will be the only refuge you ever get to stay in – so enjoy the simplicity of the rustic hut and its magical location in Vali Veni.

Mont Blanc hiking tour 2024 – Southern Half: Tour Itinerary

[Times and ascents/descents are an approximation.]

Day 1: Arrive in Chamonix Les Praz [France] and hotel check-in. You are one stop from busy Chamonix, so can enjoy the town itself and sleep in peace and quiet just two minutes walk from the La Flagère cable car.

Day 2

Les Praz to Les Houches

Click to view a video of the day’s walking

[10 miles-16 kms, +650ms/–1525ms, 8 hrs]

Mont Blanc

Walk out the hotel, take the cable car up to La Flagère and get straight into the TMB action: le Balcon du Sud, the splendid col du Brevent, the magnificent panorama from Brevent itself and the descent to Les Houches via Le Merlet.

Night in Les Houches.

Day 3

Les Houches to
Les Contamines

View a Relive Video of the day’s walking here

Low Route
[10 miles-16 kms, +90 ms/–640ms, 4 hrs] or
High Route
[11 miles-18 kms, +840ms/ –580ms, 5¾ hrs]

Miage or Bionnassay

Avoid the knee-crunching and monotonous climb and take the cable car up to Bellevue. Depending on the weather, and your mood, opt for the trail that suits you best to Les Contamines.
The video takers opted for the High Route.

Night in Les Contamines.

Day 4

Les Contamines to Les Chapieux

Click to view a video of the day’s walking

[11 miles-18 kms, +1320ms/–930ms, 7 hrs]

Col du Bonhomme

Follow the Bon Nant Torr past Notre Dames de la Gorge and two refuges en route to the Col du Bonhomme and Col de la Croix. Lunch in the refuge du Bonhomme is followed by the descent to Les Chapieux and your welcoming auberge.

Night in Les Chapieux.

Day 5

Les Chapieux to Ref Elisabetta

Click to view a video of the day’s walking

[9½ miles-15 kms, +1000ms/–260ms, 5 hrs]

Vallee des Glaciers

The Vallee des Glaciers is a joy to behold. Enjoy a quick drink at Les Mottets before climbing up to the Col de la Seigne and into Italy. The views are delightful as too is the descent into Lex Blanche.

Night in Elisabetta.

Day 6

Refuge Elisabetta to Courmayeur

Click to view a video of the day’s walking

[11 miles-18 kms, +460ms/–1580ms, 5 hrs]

Lex Blanche

Your final day takes you further down the Lex Blanche before ypu climb up past abandoned farmsteads overlooking the remains of the Miage Glacier. The balcony trail to the Col Checrouit makes for a fine end to this superb hiking trip.

Night in Courmayeur.

Day 7: Departure day – breakfast and onward journey by bus to Chamonix, Milan or Turin or transfer to Geneva.

Further Reading
Read our article on:

Independent testimonials about The Enlightened Traveller can be read here:

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